Gas turbine motor and inlet wall structure therefor



Oct. 16, 1962 P. SCHLUMBOHM 3,058,306

GAS TURBINE MOTOR AND INLET WALL STRUCTURE THEREFOR Filed March 24, 1961 SECTION 2 -2 fig IN V EN TOR.

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3,058,306 GAS TURSKNE MQTQR AND MET WALL STR THEREFQR Peter Schlumbohm, 44 Murray St, New York 7, N.Y. Filed M r. 24, 1961, Ser. No. 112,479 Ciairns. (Cl. 60-3955) This application is a continuation in part of my pending application, Ser. No. 771,879, filed Nov. 4, 1958.

The invention refers to turbines in which the combustion of a fuel-and-air mixture drives an impeller rotating on a shaft. The invention is illustrated by way of example in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 of the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view of the turbine, shown partly in view and partly in vertical cross section.

FIG. 2 is a section of FIG. 1 along 2-2.

FIG. 3 is asection of FIG. 1 along 1-1.

The turbine illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises the impeller wheel 1 mounted on a shaft 2. The shaft 2 is itself mounted in a bearing 3 and has a power take-off disc 4-. The impeller 1 rotates in front of a stationary wall 5. This wall 5 is a plate of predetermined thickness, having a forward surface towards the impeller 1 and a rear surface. Its body comprises a multitude of axial, substantially parallel, channels. This wall 5, the ribs 6 and the base plate 7 of the impeller, wall the space in which the combustion takes place. The fuel enters into this space through a tube 8 controlled by valve 9. The fuel is preferably a gas such as natural gas or propane or butane.

The air enters, as shown by the arrows, by flowing through a reticulated structure comprising a multitude of axial channels, sucked into the combustion space when the impeller 1 rotates. The mixture of fuel and air is ignited by the spark plug 10. However this spark is required only at the beginning of the operation. After a while the body 5 is so hot by contact with the combustion gases that its forward surface will ignite the mix ture of the fuel and air the moment that mixture is formed in its right proportions.

The rear surface of the plate 5 is supported by mechanical structure 11. The plate 5 with its channel structure is made from material which will not be damaged by the temperature of the combustion gases. Such material may be metals but still better are ceramics. Ceramics will be more apt to replace the spark and to ignite the combustion mixture.

An additional inventive step in this direction is to deposit on the forward surface and on the surface of the adjacent channels a catalyst such as platinum, to make this igniting efiect more instantaneous. One ceramic material which would serve the present purpose is ofiered under the trademark CERCOR as a product of the Corning Glass Works.

Such a plate 5 as part of the wall of the combustion space of the turbine 1 has several advantages:

First, the wall is an excellent preheater for the incoming air. Preheating the air is an important step in all turbine design, to increase the degree of efliciency.

Second, the self-ignition eifect simplifies the operation of the turbine not only by eliminating shortcomings of a sparking system but it also allows to run the turbine at a great range of r.p.m. with a great range of pulsations per minute.

Third, the plate 7 has the effect of an aerodynamic valve. Such aerodynamic valves have been proposed by the inventor of the pulse-jet propulsion engine, P. Schmidt, by I. H. Bertin and by others. However, their structure, for instance a bundle of tubes, considers only Patented Oct. 16, 1962 the effect as aerodynamic valve. The self-ignition effect was not their goal; in pulse-jet engines the ignition is caused by a shock wave from the sound tube which is a deciding feature of such engines.

By combining all these advantages in this plate '5, and by allotting to its forward surface a high percentage of the wall surface of the combustion space, I can run even an elementary open-flame type turbine impeller.

Having now described the nature of my invention and shown by example the manner in which it may be performed,

I claim as my invention:

1. A turbine motor comprising an impeller rotatably mounted on a shaft, said impeller having a disc base and impeller blades based on said disc, extending from the center zone of the disc towards its periphery and being substantially of the same width, and further comprising a stationary wall having a forward surface and a rear surface and being of reticulated and channeled structure with a multitude of channels extending from the rear surface to the forward surface, said forward surface being plane and in close proximity to said impeller blades and forming together with these impeller blades and the disc base, the walls of the combustion space, said reticulated, channeled structure forming a one-way aerodynamic valve, checking the flow of combustion gases, but allowing air to flow into the combustion space, means for introducing fuel into said combustion space and means for igniting the mixture of the air entering through the channels of said wall and the fuel.

2. A turbine motor in which a reticulated stationary wall having a forward surface and a rear surface, with a multitude of channels connecting said rear surface with said forward surface, forms with its forward surface part of the walls of the combustion space of a rotating turbine impeller, said impeller having a disc base and impeller blades, said disc base and said impeller blades forming the remainder of the walls of the combustion space, said reticulated, channeled structure forming a one-way aerodynamic valve, checking the How of combustion gases, but allowing air to flow into the combustion space, and means for introducing fuel into said combustion space.

3. A turbine motor as claimed in claim 2, in which said stationary wall is of ceramic material.

4. A turbine motor as claimed in claim 2, in which said stationary wall is of ceramic material and in which the forward surface of said wall is the base for a deposit of a catalyst of the type, such as platinum, which ignites a combustive mixture.

5. A turbine motor with a combustion space, comprising impeller blades radially mounted on a rotatable shaft, means for introducing air, means for introducing fuel, means for ignition, and means for exhausting the combustion gases, said impeller blades rotating in a combustion space which is walled at least by two parallel walls arranged in a plane away from said rotatable shaft, said walls having overall dimensions corresponding to the largest diametrical dimension of said impeller blades, said walls being axially spaced from each other to the extent of the width of said impeller blades, one of said walls being of a reticulated, channeled structure adapted to act as a one-way aerodynamic valve for allowing the flow of air into said combustion space but checking the backfiring combustion gases.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,825,203 Bertin Mar. 4, 1958 

